Bazaar and Rummage

As the curtains opened on ‘Bazaar and Rummage’, the audience could be forgiven for thinking that they were facing the wrong way as they were greeted with a standard village hall!  However, this wasn’t a mistake and was in fact a very simple but effective staging for the production. The stage was reminiscent of every village hall across the country, a few tables, a picture of Jesus, a piano (they always have one!), a notice board of flyers (including an advert for a production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and the notorious double doors! Both acts of the play were set in the hall and what a great sturdy looking set it was from Bodgit and the Crew.

There were a great many props used in this production and all of them were very fitting and really brought to life the ‘tat’ that people often do try to sell at these events.  Especially good was the fact that you had gone to the trouble of finding pretty much all the objects mentioned in one of the songs, however having a lot of props can sometimes cause a problem and there was a moment when one of the props got knocked off the table which, unfortunately, had the effect of momentarily throwing one of the actors off their stride. Well done to Sue Miller, as prompt, for quickly coming to the rescue.

The lights, under the control of Mike Best and Josh Chant, were good and lit the stage and the cast well. Having a basic box set, does make life easier when it comes to lighting but this production was unusual in the amount of spotlights it used and these were handled very professionally.

Unfortunately, the sound was not quite as good. During the first half the volume levels were too low and it was very hard to hear the cast, especially during songs and if there were several people on the stage. Luckily, the sound levels were much better in the second half and it was much easier to hear what was going on. It is a shame that this production had these sound issues, this does seem to be an ongoing problem that has been mentioned in previous reviews.

The wardrobe, by Jackie Dyer, was fantastic and the clothes really matched all the characters. What an amazing set of costumes for Katrina, from her over the top ex-show costumes to her understated Barry Mannilow T-shirt. Make-up for this production was also very good.

The programme and posters, designed by William Scott-Robinson, were very good and cleverly looked like pieces of paper sellotaped onto a wall. This tied in so well with not only the setting of the play but also it’s 80’s feel.

There were several songs in this production, all of which were a bit quirky and fun and all were performed to a good strong standard, with some nice harmonies throughout. It was just a shame that on a couple of occasions some of the words were lost due to the aforementioned sound issues.

When a play has to be carried by only a handful of people it is really important that you have some very strong actors to take on these roles. Luckily strong female actors are something that Cudos is not short of. Dendy Harris played the part of self-elected leader and snob Gwenda well and you truly felt that she really wanted to control these people.  Dendy also did a good job of showing the tragic side of her character in relation to her father’s passing, unfortunately on the night Dendy had a few hiccups with projection and lines but overall hers was a good portrayal. Sheena Wilkins’ take on the placid clean freak Bel Bel was equally funny and moving. Bearing in mind, by Sheena’s own admission, that amateur dramatics is still fairly new to her she did more than a competent job with this role, she also had a lovely singing voice and her fur coat song was one of the highlights of the show.  Sarah Elliott was very funny in the role of Katrina. Sarah’s characterisation of Katrina was pretty much spot on and she managed to wring so much extra humour out of the role with her looks; walking and gestures, all without losing any of the emotional impact. Sarah’s was truly a star turn. However, there were star turns all over the place, in this production, and another one was brought to the stage by Diana Hodgson, as Fliss. Diana was fantastic as Fairy Dreadlock in Rapunzel and equally fantastic in Bazaar and Rummage. The roles of Fairy Dreadlock and Fliss, in close proximity, allowed Diana to show what a talented and versatile actress she is and she really brought a lot of pathos, compassion and empathy to this new role.  Leonie Dash, as the unnamed WPC didn’t have too much to do as she only appeared near the end of the play. Leonie played her little cameo well and brought some good humour to the end of the play as the WPC who is just as scared of the streets as the rest of the ladies. Rounding off the cast was the always fantastic Kerry Peters. Here Kerry played the part of the straight talking Margaret, a definite foil for the prim and proper Gwenda. Kerry’s was a pure masterclass in acting and she brought the role of Margaret to life effortlessly, playing the role with such ease you would have thought it was written for her. She did a superb job of bringing some real heart to the role of Margaret, even if she did use enough language to make the Vicar of Dibley blush, whilst still managing to elicit a lot of sympathy for her character. Kerry’s was definitely the stand out performance of the night, which is no mean task when you are performing against actors who were all firing on all cylinders.

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable performance of a funny play, that had good emotional impact and a message about overcoming your fears. Director Polly English must have been so pleased with the end result and so proud of her cast, and rightly so. A few little issues aside, this was definitely a top notch performance and you could tell that everyone on that stage was having a blast and enjoying working together. Well done CUDOS.

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